A doctor who spent four weeks in ICU after contracting COVID-19 has warned people not to be blasé about the virus.
Dr Michael Doyle was on a ventilator for 11 days during his month-long stay at St James's Hospital between March and April.
He told The Pat Kenny Show that he didn't think contracting coronavirus would have a serious impact on his health.
He said: "I remember thinking, I'm 58, 6 foot 6 and 19 stone, and I thought I was indestructible and if I got it, it would be two weeks off work with the feet up."
Dr Doyle said one day in late March he didn't feel great and went home to self-isolate, but had no temperature or shortness of breath.
A week later he fainted in the shower and found that his oxygen saturation was "extremely low" at 4%.
He then went to St James's Hospital where on entering the door he felt "huge relief" that he was in "safe hands".
"Within 12 hours, I was ventilated and then deteriorated from then rapidly.
He was subsequently in the ICU for four weeks, during which he was ventilated for 11 days.
Dr Doyle added: "When I woke up, as most ventilated patients are, I was very confused and I had to learn how to walk again, how to eat again, how to do everything again."
He said the care he got at the hospital was "absolutely sensational".
When he went home, he was very weak and "stunned" and "vacant" but after completing rehab exercises for several weeks he was much improved.
He warned people that COVID-19 is "a serious condition" despite the recent low numbers recorded in hospitals.
He said: "I think we're a bit blasé about it at the moment but it definitely is serious, I know, I went through it."
